Waiting Shapeless

Chapter 55. Gnumus

Hud: Pardos

Pain.

He had blacked out, but only for a moment, thankfully.

Hud wasn't sure if it was the pain that brought him back to consciousness or if it was the screeching metallic demon in the cave with him.

His body was broken. Several bones all across his body had been shattered, and there wasn't a single section of his skin wasn't ripped open or lacerated.

Why was he even here? He should have been on his way to Oi to get his baby daughter, but instead he was going to die alone inside of a dark cave on a forsaken planet.

He needed Natilliea again, but that Human had grabbed her. He was nothing without her.

As he lay there in the commotion, in his mind flashed memories with Natilliea. She was his life, his existence, his bane, and his happiness. He missed her so much.

Tears began to flow from his eyes as he lay on the stone ground. Maybe his life didn't matter. He would never have her back.

But he had a baby daughter. He needed to live, for his daughter. The thought of her brought courage to his heart.

Suddenly, Hud could feel Natilliea drop to the ground next to him.

He opened his dazed eyes and painfully grabbed her from the floor, holding her tightly in his arms. Natilliea purred with delight.

Suddenly a random surge of emotions pulsated through Hud's body. A combination of joy, power, excitement, and confidence raced through him, completely eliminating any negative thought or feeling that he was hosting.

He could tell his body was still beaten and broken, but the pain wasn't holding him back anymore.

Hud blinked, wiping the tears off his face. What was going on? He slowly stood up. He could feel his body pumping with adrenaline.

Hud smiled in confusion and delight. He had never felt so alive! He looked down at his still broken body. What was going on? The pain was practically nonexistent... Was he not dead from this world only a moment ago?

Natilliea hummed gently in his hand. Was having her back giving him the encouragement he needed to push on? He had never felt like this before!

The roaring monster in the background caught his attention. Time to finish where we left off. Hud remembered with a sinister grin.

Questions for later, now was the time to kill.

"I love you, Natilliea. We're not going to die here. We're going to get out of here and find our daughter." He looked down at her in his hands. "...Are you ready to kick some ugly bug ass?"

She jumped with glee in his hands. She loved kicking ass.

Hud transformed Natilliea into the biggest gun he could think of but then stopped.

Arbol screamed in the background.

Suddenly something occurred to him. "Hey Natilliea..." He said slowly, almost tenderly, "Hey... have I ever asked you what you wanted to be?"

Natilliea hummed loudly. She was excited, that was obvious. But now Hud felt a new form of excitement radiating off of her. She didn't hesitate; she was ready to go.

The gun quickly began to unfold in Hud's hand. But it wasn't the normal folding and unfolding in Hud's arms that usually took place when Natilliea changed. This time she unfolded herself onto Hud, enfolding him within her.

She started with the finger tips and almost seemed to crawl across his hand as he held her, unfolding across his palm and covering his hand like a metal glove.

She then moved up his arm as he held her, then slid down his chest and his back, quickly moving on to engulf his entire body.

It was an ominous feeling, the feeling of being slowly consumed by a cold, metallic entity. He expected a feeling of claustrophobia as Natilliea climbed up his thick neck and covered his face, but it never came. Hud was overcome with a feeling of peace as she did her work.

Soon the heat of his body warmed the metal to a comfortable temperature, to the point that Hud couldn't even tell she was there.

They were becoming one entity.

The metal against his skin hummed tenderly as it held him.

Hud could feel Natilliea building upon herself, or themselves as it were, adding layer upon layer to her metal hull. He could feel himself rise above the ground as Natilliea constructed for themselves longer and thicker legs beyond Hud's, and he could sense himself grow as she began to occupy more space in the now shrinking cave.

But Natilliea wasn't just building a body; she was building a weapon. As the metal unfolded, layers of thick cannon barrels emerged and sprouted from various areas across the sleek metallic body.

Their mass and density increased exponentially until they were equal in size to the metal monster adjacent them.

Once he could feel Natilliea was done unfolding, Hud looked down at their impressive body made of intricately woven shards of folded metal.

They were a magnificent work of art.

From where their mouth would have been sprouted a concourse of cannon barrels, and a pair of thick shoulder pads that held a dozen large cannons each. Smoke and sparks poured out of their cannon filled mouth as Hud breathed, looking and feeling as if they breathed fire.

Raising their muscled arm, Hud admired their powerful hand. Each of their ten fingers were powerful cannon-like barrels as well.

Hud and Natilliea were now literally a massive, walking super-weapon.

He couldn't help but chuckle to feel such immense power. He felt so high it was unreal. Was this a dream?

His boom of a laugh sounded off the walls of the shrunken cave like the roar of a mechanical lion, a mix of grinding metal and hissing smoke.

The now equally sized insect creature adjacent them fell silent and twisted in the direction of the new threat.

The flare still flashed brightly in the monster's now scarred and scratched eye. It would burn out soon, but Hud no longer needed that advantage.

"And who..." Said the beast cautiously, turning its head from side to side in an attempt to see clearer. "...do I have the pleasure of meeting this time?"

Hud grinned.